Germans love their beer. Beer consumption has fallen around the globe, but Germany is holding its own, its citizens guzzling a reported 11 fluid ounces a day per person.
The U.S. addiction is guns. An estimated 34 percent of citizens in the U.S. own firearms and there is thought to be more than 200 million firearms in private hands.
Germans have their national indulgence, as do Americans. However, no one has ever been shot, wounded or killed by a stein of beer.

Just open the pages of any daily newspaper in the U.S. and you'll find incidents of gun violence that leave hundreds of people across the country dead, wounded or seriously maimed.

The recent tragedy in Arizona that left six people dead and 13 injured -- including a U.S. congresswoman who is making miraculous progress even though she was shot through the head -- has re-energized gun control advocates.

Some are proposing prohibiting the sale of the kind of oversized clip that Jared Loughner allegedly used in the Arizona shooting rampage. Loughner's gun was equipped with a clip that held 33 bullets.

Most observers of this long-lived struggle say the anti-handgun crowd will fair no better in their efforts than they have in the past, given the strength of the gun lobby led by the National Rifle Association.

Indeed, the NRA is feeling especially cocky these days, what with sales of firearms on the upswing and a U.S. Supreme Court decision voiding a Washington, D.C., ordinance that was aimed at reining in the sale and number of firearms allowed in its jurisdiction.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has launched a campaign calling for stricter laws governing handguns. Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy is a staunch ally of Bloomberg and led the charge in New Jersey to limit gun purchasers to one gun per month per customer.

If the number of states that are allowing not only gun ownership but the right to carry a concealed weapon is any indication, Healy and Bloomberg have their work cut out for them.

It seems clear that an increasing number of Americans want the right to be armed.
In fact, the City Council of Kennesaw, Ga., in 1982, passed an ordinance that required heads of households to own and maintain a gun and ammunition. Predictions of gun mayhem never materialized. There has been only one gun-related murder in the municipality, and crime decreased after passage of the ordinance.

On the other hand, gun-related violence is wreaking havoc in Jersey City, Newark, Chicago and New York, and other parts of urban America.

Perhaps what is needed is a frank discussion of why Americans feel the need to possess and use guns.